


First Sight

by unoriginal_liz



Category: The Grand (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-09
Updated: 2010-08-09
Packaged: 2017-12-22 03:31:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/908393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unoriginal_liz/pseuds/unoriginal_liz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Later, much later, his brother will tell Sarah that he fell in love with her the moment he saw her</p>
            </blockquote>





	First Sight

**Author's Note:**

> Without a doubt, the only fanfic ever written for Russell T. Davies The Grand :)

Later, much later, his brother will tell Sarah that he fell in love with her the moment he saw her.

It's just a story - and hardly an original one. It's the sort of thing men tell women all the time.

Marcus would know.

*****

The first time he meets Sarah is in The Grand, and he makes sure to arrive late, striding across the sudden disapproving silence of the family rooms to pour himself a drink. This has nothing to do with Sarah in particular - rather it is a courtesy he would have extended to any woman his father had deemed an acceptable Bannerman wife.

"Marcus," his father's voice follows him and he waits an extra moment before turning around. His mother's mouth is set.

"We didn't think you were coming," John says quietly. "Sarah - this is my brother, Marcus" - 

Marcus cocks his head. "I said I'd be here, didn't I? And how could I miss _this_?" He extends a hand towards the woman sitting next to John - a barely discernable presence at the corner of his eye. "It is after all, a special occasion."

"Then you might have seen fit to arrive on time," his father says. Softening his voice, he says to Sarah, "You'll have to excuse my son. Marcus likes to make an entrance." His lips are tight.

"But I'm only performing my role, Father," Marcus says. He turns to Sarah and she regards him with cool, light-coloured eyes. "What you should know about us, Sarah, is that we Bannermans value function. A place for everything and everything in its place."

She watches him, unblinking. He finds her composure arresting. 

"Marcus, Sarah is our guest, and I don't think" - 

Swiftly, he cuts in. "Mother, as the owners of a hotel, don't you think it reflects badly on us to sweep things under the carpet?" He smiles at Sarah. "As I was saying - it's my place to make John look good by comparison."

He swings himself into the chair on Sarah's left, and asks her, "What do you think?"

In a tone that holds only disinterested amusement, she says, "I think you're doing an admirable job so far."

He spends the rest of Sarah's visit studying her.

*****

It shouldn't have surprised him that his older brother doesn't seem to realise Sarah's value, even though Marcus had known from that first look. But it still awakens the familiar curl of irritation and resentment deep in his stomach when John asks, afterwards, "What did you think?"

He turns the empty glass over in his hands. "Does it matter?"

"Come on, Marcus," John says. "Knowing you, you'll make your opinion heard regardless" - 

"So you may as well invite it?" He considers his brother. "Very sporting of you - considering that in the end, Father's opinion is the only one that truly matters."

"That's hardly" - 

"He expects you to marry her, doesn't he? A doctor's daughter - very respectable. A good match. Isn't that what he said?"

John looks away, and the irritation Marcus feels is suddenly tempered by a flash of sympathy. Poor John. So reliant on the approval of others, still. Always.

"What do _you_ think of her?" he says suddenly, and John looks startled, as if he hadn't ever expected to be asked - as if he had never considered the question.

"Well - she's...wonderful. Obviously," he says, and stops, clearly searching for more insipid words that Marcus knows even then don't begin to describe Sarah. As if he can't help himself, John asks again, "What did you think of her - honestly?" He sits forward in his chair.

"I think - she's a formidable woman," Marcus says, testing the word on his tongue, and matching it to the woman who had sat in the same chair a mere hour before.

John laughs, a little uneasily. "Formidable? Good God, Marcus - you make her sound like a - like a fortress, or a castle. Something to be conquered."

Marcus looks at him. "Do I?"

*****

The situation hardly qualifies as a mystery. Sarah is an attractive woman. A very attractive woman - though not ostentatiously so. There are certainly prettier women in Manchester - Marcus could personally vouch for that. But he still finds something compelling in the way her dark eyebrows stand out against the lightness of her eyes and hair, lending an almost discordant decisiveness to her face.

He enjoys watching her - though devoid of any calculated seduction, the deliberate, purposeful nature of her movements somehow serves to produce the same effect.

Still, he never lies to himself about his motives. That Sarah is meant for John is certainly part of her appeal. He's spent his whole life wanting what was John's - his father's regard, the hotel...this is - inevitable, in a way.

John will lie afterwards - turn his awkward courtship into some grand love-story. Marcus is an adept liar, but he doesn't waste his time with deceit to make his desire for Sarah more palatable. 

He would have desired her anyway.

*****

Though his pursuit of Sarah is devoid of strategy, this does not make it aimless, or any less a pursuit. Strategy would be useless in this case - Sarah's affection for his brother is clear and unequivocal. In this, as in every contest between him and his brother, the deck is stacked against Marcus from the start.

One might suppose this would serve to temper his ardour. Quite the contrary. 

Marcus has always used the disparity between himself and John to spur himself onwards. He takes whatever he can, to get closer to what he wants. Dulled by effortless success, John too often fails to press his advantage. Marcus has always used that.

So when John says, at the end of one of Sarah's morning calls to The Grand, "I'll see you later," and she laughs and says, "Ah - no, you will _not_. I have far too much to do," Marcus is there to extend a hand and say, "I'll see Sarah out."

And although John says, "Tomorrow, then?" and Sarah's smile is warm and private as she agrees, "Tomorrow," it is Marcus and Sarah who walk out together, leaving John alone in the foyer.

It means nothing - not then. But Marcus takes those opportunities regardless.

Because there is a connection between he and Sarah. He'd known it at that first meeting - the way her eyes swept over him, assessing - expression a mirror image of his own.

Even Sarah acknowledges as much sometimes.

"What do you think of The Grand?" she asks him once, carefully, as they walk.

"I don't think of it," he replies immediately, though he discerns her meaning at once.

She looks at him and dismisses his easy words as the lie they are. "It's your family's business."

"It's John's inheritance," he tells her. "And therefore no concern of mine."

BUt she asks _him_ \- not John, in spite of this. He smiles to himself. 

"Then as a businessman," she says, "what do you think of The Grand?"

He laughs. "The Grand isn't a business, Sarah. It's a relic, a remnant of a time that's almost past."

From her lack of surprise, he can tell that all he has done is confirm her own feelings on the matter. She sees what he sees in The Grand - an enterprise slowly driving itself into the ground, while those running it carry on, oblivious.

"But it needn't be," she says. "It could still be salvaged."

"Perhaps. Under the right leadership."

She is silent for a moment, clearly considering his words. "You could help."

"I could," he agrees. He takes a moment to savour her words. "But why would I?"

She looks at him. "Why wouldn't you? It's your family business - surely you feel some loyalty?"

"To preserve a legacy that isn't mine? No thank you - I'd rather spend my time on more profitable endeavours." He looks straight ahead. "Anyway, my opinions have never been appreciated at The Grand. Father much prefers unquestioning obedience. Surely you've realised that by now?"

The long look she directs at him is not particularly flattering, but Marcus basks in it anyway.

"John is not his father," Sarah says eventually.

"No," he agrees, "But he _is_ his father's son. Something to keep in mind - when The Grand passes into his hands."

He isn't the sort of man to write love letters. But he would have let Sarah go through his business books. He would have let her see every receipt and every account.

*****

It is inevitable that Sarah becomes aware of his feelings. She's a clever woman, and he never particularly troubles to hide his attraction. The attention Marcus receives has always been negative, in general. He contrives to enjoy it anyway.

The Grand's dances are dull affairs, so he takes it upon himself to provide the entertainment. His companion is entirely unsuited to the staid respectability of The Grand, and either unaware or uncaring of that fact - something which might have endeared her to Marcus if she hadn't also been so irritatingly inarticulate.

"This is nice," she says, glancing around the room. "It's so...so..."

His parents remain tight-lipped and unwelcoming, while John casts a disappointed look his way, silently reproaching him for again breaching the peace.

Sarah, meanwhile, treats his guest with a careful and deliberate kindness that it in its own way, just as much a judgment as his parents' silence.

"It's - you get in, and it's big. Like, not big like ordinary big...but...proper big, you know?"

"I know what you mean," Sarah assures her, smoothing over her awkwardness with a smile. "I felt the same way when John first brought me here."

He doesn't get a chance to speak with Sarah until his brother politely asks his companion to dance, and Marcus takes the opportunity to bring Sarah out onto the floor.

He takes a moment to imprint the feeling of her palm against his, the curve of her waist under his hand, before saying, "So - what do you think of her?"

"Well, she's certainly fulfilled your objective," she says, casting a glance over his shoulder to his parents' table. When she looks at him again, her eyes are cool. "It's hardly a fair position to place her in."

"She doesn't seem to mind," he points out. "Tell me, which is worse - that she's so far beneath me, or that she doesn't seem to realise it?"

"That's not the point, Marcus."

"Then what is?"

She studies him. "I wouldn't have thought she was your type. That's all."

Her gaze contains nothing more than curiosity - but even that is enough to make him reckless. "What would you do if I told you I planned to make her part of the family?"

Her laugh is honest, startled. "Comfort you, I should think."

He smiles at her. "Almost enough reason for me to do it."

He watches her as she realises his meaning. She frowns at him, and slowly, almost absently, she says, "Or perhaps she's the one I should be comforting."

He meets her eyes for a moment, before leaning in, ignoring the sudden stiffness of her body, and speaks into her ear. "You needn't worry about her. RIght now, I'm all yours."

*****

It had all been marked out from the moment John met her, so his reluctance to propose sets the entire family on edge. Marcus could admit that their father's irritation at the dutiful son suddenly turned rogue was amusing, but this was tempered by the inexplicable nature of John's actions. He continued to see Sarah, had every appearance of enjoyment in her company...but refused to move the situation to its inevitable conclusion.

"I must say, I don't know what your brother is waiting for," his mother says. Marcus doesn't know either.

Sarah seems calm and unmoved by the lack of momentum. She, at least, appears to know what she is waiting for.

It's a little disappointing, he won't lie. Wife of John Bannerman - it's such a _banal_ aspiration. Oh, he has no doubt that Sarah will make the role her own, but it's a waste of her potential. 

If it were done, it would be one thing. BUt the situation drags on, and impatience builds within him, and finally, when Sarah asks him, in the reading room, "Do you suppose John will be much longer? We're late as it is" - he says, "Why do you want to marry my brother?"

She's surprised, but only for a moment. "Marcus," she says, and the tone of her voice carries a slight warning.

"I'm serious," he assures her. "And so are you - obviously," he smiles a sharp smile. "But why?"

He can see the moment she decides it's easiest to humour him. "Why does anyone want to get married, Marcus? Shared values, children..."

"And John is the only man who can give you these?"

"No," she says. "But he's the man I've chosen." Her matter-of-factness doesn't entirely deprive her words of their sting, but Marcus pushes on, regardless.

"Someone else could give you all those things you want."

"I'm sure they could, Marcus. What's your point?"

" _I_ could," he says suddenly. "I could give you everything you want."

She looks away. "Just as an example," he says, the corners of his mouth barely lifting.

The expression on her face as she scrutinises him reminds him exactly _why_ her. Why Sarah. Any other woman would feel either pity, or fascination at his half-confession. Any other woman might offer sympathy, or conversely, indulge a little in the flattering sensation of being desired, and desirable.

Sarah's dismissal is immediate and complete. She seems almost annoyed at his refusal to quietly rearrange his needs to better suit the situation. 

There's a brief moment where her eyes assess him as though he were a business proposition, and she says, bluntly, "And would you describe yourself as a marrying man, Marcus?"

"No," he admits.

"Then you couldn't possibly give me what I want, could you?" she says, with finality.

It's beautifully done, so elegantly dismissive, that he can't help his smile. "No, perhaps not," he says.

*****

It's wonderfully absurd that later, when he speaks to John, his brother says, "I just - I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"It's not Sarah. It's not. She's _wonderful_ , I can see that. It's me. I don't know. I just - don't know."

"But you _do_ plan on asking her?"

"Father wants me to," John says.

"Well then, you'd better hurry up. Don't want to keep Father waiting too long."

"You think it's the right thing to do, then?" John asks, his face so open. Waiting once more for someone to direct him. Marcus could tell him anything now, and he'd believe it.

Marcus holds Sarah's happiness in his hands, and considers his options.

"If you don't hurry up, I'll beat you to it," he says finally.

John's face clears. "Thank you, Marcus," he says, and his hand comes down on Marcus' shoulder. "Thank you."

It turns out there is a peculiar satisfaction in being the one to give Sarah everything she wants. Even if she never knows it.

John gets to his feet. "I still don't know how I'm going to ask her. I mean - what should I say?"

It only takes him a second to decide.

"Tell her you fell in love with her the moment you saw her," he tells John. "Women like to hear that."


End file.
